States / Colorado

45 counties · median score 10

Crawl space moisture in Colorado

Most of Colorado drains well: only 0 of 45 counties score high or elevated, and the median is 10. Alamosa County is the exception at 31; crawl-space moisture problems here usually come from grading, gutters and plumbing rather than the soil itself.

1234
  1. 1Wettest county Alamosa County
  2. 2High or elevated 0 of 45
  3. 3Median score 10
  4. 4Driest county Yuma County
Alamosa31Conejos27Rio Grande25Saguache25Jackson20Archuleta18Fremont18Rio Blanco18Larimer16Mesa16San Miguel16Boulder15La Plata15Las Animas15Routt14
Soil moisture score (0–100) for the 15 highest of 45 counties in Colorado, bars to scale. Score from USDA NRCS drainage class, hydrologic group, water-table depth and flooding; see methodology.
0High0Elevated5Moderate40Low
Colorado: counties by soil moisture tier, columns to scale.

Colorado's soil, taken as a whole

Across the 44,977,697 acres mapped in these 45 counties, 3% of soil with a drainage class is somewhat poorly, poorly or very poorly drained, and 4% of acres report a seasonal water table within about two metres. That is a dry figure; wet soils here are confined to river bottoms and wetlands. 44 of the 45 counties have mapped soils subject to occasional or frequent flooding.

Drainage classShare of mapped acres
Excessively drained6.6%
Somewhat excessively drained5.5%
Well drained83.8%
Moderately well drained1%
Somewhat poorly drained1.3%
Poorly drained1.6%
Very poorly drained0.1%

Radon. By EPA zone, 38 Colorado counties here are zone 1 (highest potential), 7 zone 2 and 0 zone 3. With most of the state in zone 1, any crawl-space sealing project here should start with a radon test and be designed to take a radon fan.

Every Colorado county

Sorted wettest first. High and elevated counties link to their own page with the full soil breakdown.

Alamosa County 31Conejos County 27Rio Grande County 25Saguache County 25Jackson County 20Archuleta County 18Fremont County 18Rio Blanco County 18Larimer County 16Mesa County 16San Miguel County 16Boulder County 15La Plata County 15Las Animas County 15Routt County 14Custer County 13Gunnison County 13Ouray County 13Bent County 11Pueblo County 11Summit County 11Grand County 10Huerfano County 10Moffat County 10Otero County 10Arapahoe County 9Crowley County 9Logan County 9Costilla County 8Denver County 8Elbert County 7Lincoln County 7Prowers County 7Sedgwick County 7Adams County 6Kiowa County 6Phillips County 6Weld County 6Baca County 5Washington County 5Cheyenne County 4Morgan County 4El Paso County 3Kit Carson County 3Yuma County 3

What drives the Colorado numbers

The wettest county, Alamosa County, is 31% well drained by dominant condition, with a seasonal water table averaging 3.2 ft below grade across the 67% of acres that report one, and sits in EPA radon zone 2. The driest, Yuma County, is 62% well drained. No Colorado county reaches the high tier.

The score is a guide to the soil, not to a house: a well-graded lot with working gutters in a high county can have a dry crawl space, and a bad downspout can flood one in a low county. The R408 calculator sizes venting or encapsulation for any footprint.

Sources: USDA NRCS SSURGO via Soil Data Access (muaggatt: drclassdcd, hydgrpdcd, flodfreqdcd, pondfreqprs, wtdepannmin), acreage-weighted; EPA Map of Radon Zones, county table (June 2024 JSON). Checked 2026-10-23.